Former IRA prisoner adds to calls for Bloody Sunday paratroopers to be granted
an amnesty from prosecution

A convicted IRA murderer has said it would be wrong to prosecute paratroopers involved in the Bloody Sunday shootings, insisting it is time to “draw a line in the sand”.

Anthony McIntyre, who was convicted of the 1976 shooting of a loyalist in Belfast, said there were no grounds for pursuing the soldiers through the courts and said it was time move on.

The former IRA member, who left Sinn Fein in protest at the Good Friday agreement, said the focus on the past was “polluting the present” adding that it was time to end prosecutions for crimes on both sides.

His comments come amid mounting outrage over the decision last week to drop the case against suspected Hyde Park bomber John Downey, while the prospect of a prosecution still hangs over the Paras.

At the weekend former Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Hain, said any amnesties must include troops involved in the 1972 massacre, in which 14 unarmed civilians were shot dead during a civil rights march in Londonderry.

The comments from a convicted IRA terrorist, suggest such a move might be also be accepted within parts of the Republican movement.

Dr McIntyre, who served 18-years in prison, before being released and obtaining a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast, called for an end to all prosecutions to do with ‘the troubles’.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “There should be no prosecutions. It was a horrible conflict, but this debate about the past is polluting the present. It is time to move on. People died for so little.”

Last week a judge at the Old Bailey ruled that Mr Downey could not be prosecuted because the Police Service of Northern Ireland had mistakenly sent him a letter guaranteeing him immunity.

It is has now emerged that 187 suspected IRA killers have also received such letters.

But Dr McIntyre said: “This current controversy over ‘on the runs’ is not about peace and reconciliation, it's peace and recrimination.”

He went on: “There should be no prosecutions whether it is about Bloody Sunday or Kingsmill [The 1976 massacre when ten protestant workers were shot dead by the IRA].”

During the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, members of the Parachute Regiment (1 Para) called to give evidence, were allowed to do so without their identity being revealed.

But as the Daily Telegraph revealed last week, that anonymity could be stripped if they are subject to a criminal investigation.

One member of the unit has now spoken out to condemn the criminal investigation and call for the same immunity afforded to Mr Downey and the other 187 IRA members.

He told the Mail on Sunday: “Downey receives a letter promising him he will not have to face justice and I am warned I face another investigation. Why don’t they just throw the Bloody Sunday paratroopers to the IRA wolves and be done with it?”

After full details of the so-called On The Run letters emerged last week Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson threatened to resign, but the collapse of the devolved government was averted when the Prime Minister David Cameron announced a judge led inquiry into the issue.

A homecoming concert that had been planned to welcome Mr Downey back to his home in Donegal was cancelled after he said he did not want it to become a “media circus”.